I pass a pile of human feces at least once a week on my walk to work, and the street in front of my office smells like urine 24x7. I've caught someone taking the wheels off a car parked on the street once, at about 2 in the afternoon on a completely parallel-parked to the brim street. In the space of a four-block walk, I'm harassed by on average 8 or 9 homeless people who react to your refusal to give them change with hostility. On a recent walk in the neighborhood shortly after sundown I was accosted by someone selling heroin, who reacted to my refusal to purchase with hostility and brandished a weapon.

I agree with him. A lot of people view San Francisco with rose-tinted glasses. While I have passed feces in New York on the stairs up from the subway, I'd contest that every visit I've ever made to New York has left me feeling cleaner than the average commute to SoMa.